Cardano (ADA) and Chainlink (LINK) Lead Crypto Altseason to New Highs

Cardano (ADA) is the only top ten digital assets in the green over the past 30 days, up by an incredible 44.4% since this time last month. By comparison, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC) are all down by between 3 to 6% – along with the majority of other coins.

Alt season appears to be officially underway, with search volume for altcoins surging on Google Trends in the past few days. Chainlink (LINK), the 11th most valuable coin by market cap, is close behind Cardano, up by a huge 38.2% in the past month.

Every couple of months, market speculation turns away from leading coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum to focus on upcoming altcoins. Cardano is one of the older altcoins on the market and has historically struggled to make inroads within the crypto community. Now in 7th position by market capitalization, it appears to be finally finding its place in the crypto space.

Cardano Upgrade

Since the market crash in early 2018, Cardano has barely struggled to maintain a value above 5c per coin. Now at 12c per coin, it’s the highest price the asset has been trading at in almost 2 years. The gains come on the back of the upcoming launch of the ‘Shelley’ upgrade, a long-awaited move that will make staking of ADA tokens possible. However, general growth and focus on altcoins have helped to push the price even higher.

At the end of this month, the Shelley upgrade will be implemented, which could be followed by a drop in the price of ADA. Often in these situations, it becomes a matter of ‘buy the rumor, sell the news’, where an asset gains at price in the run-up to an event and then drops afterward. However, long-term ADA still represents one of the most promising altcoins on the market right now. 

Alt Season reasons

With entertainment, restaurants, and bars having been closed around the world for the past few months, it is thought that many home-bound employees with extra cash to spare are investing in cryptocurrency. This speculation is helping to drive the recent alt season, with many looking to put money into new promising investments like the decentralized finance (Defi) coin Compound (COMP). 

COMP is a decentralized governance token that supports the Open Finance money market protocol Compound.finance, which provides an on-ramp for borrowing and lending Defi coins. The surge in DeFi interest and promising new projects like Compound has helped to reignite a focus on alternative crypto platforms. Other coins seeing a surge in this area are Zero X (0x), Augur (REP), Basic Attention Token (BAT), and KyberNetwork (KNC).

Source: cryptocoinspy.com